


The Seventh Avenger

by DarkSideOfTheMoon985



Series: Vivian Blackthorn, Avenger [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4658247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSideOfTheMoon985/pseuds/DarkSideOfTheMoon985
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vivian Blackthorn is my name, sort of. I wasn't born on Earth, rather, the tenth realm of Yggdrasil. Anyway, seriously, if I had known that Coulson was going to call me to help SHIELD stop a former friend from taking over the Earth, I'm not so sure I would have gotten up that morning. Then again, it was way to much fun to pass up.</p><p>*Dont own plot line or any of the Avengers* Part 1/2</p><p>*Warning:Implied Character death*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ab Aeterno ((From the Eternal))

The sun beat down on the graceful black appendages as they slid open, out of view from prying eyes in this secluded forest. The world seemed quiet from my home outside the touch of humanity, in a wildlife preserve that SHIELD owned under the radar, just for me. Despite the secluded home I could feel the hustle and bustle of human society in the edge of my consciousness. And I still got information on what was going on through SHIELD since, technically, I was one of their Agents.

Stretching out on a rock outside my cave of a home, I soaked in the sun. In a moment of contentment I looked down into the river to view myself. Long black hair with purple highlights that sweeps over my right eye, my eyes had violet around my pupil and slowly changed color to blue as it went out, my irises were lined thickly in black, my cheekbones were high in an almost unnatural way and my lips seemingly too big even though they were both natural for me, my ears were pointed at the top slightly, I was tall and thin but muscular too, I had a six pack and curvy, pale skin despite all the sun, my fingernails and toenails were long black and sharp as daggers but retractable to a typical human length and sharpness, I had fangs for canines but they were retractable and they usually stayed retracted so they looked just a little longer and sharper then normal, and I was in nothing but a bra, panties, and the necklace with the unnatural silver gem stone that I always wore no matter what. But the strangest thing about my appearance was the giant black dragon wings on my back with a thin membrane of glistening silver on the underside and a spine jutting from the very top of each wing and from the ends of the support bones at the bottom.

I lay without moving for a long time before I heard the cell phone in my home going off with my unnaturally sharp hearing. I pulled myself to my feet and jogged into the cave, where there was a large log cabin hidden in its darkness. I pulled the door open and picked up the phone, while glaring at the questionable generator.

I glanced at the caller id, rolled my eyes, and answered with one word "Coulson?"

"We need you to come in," he replied, his voice tight and clipped.

I instantly knew something was very, very wrong "What happened?"

"You will be briefed."

"Tell me now."

"Vivian," he said his voice sounding more strained. I knew then it was worse than I suspected since he would usually call me by my last name. "Barton's been compromised."

I stilled "Have you contacted Natasha?"

"She's on her way to Calcutta. We're activating the Avengers initiative."

I swept into my bedroom "I'll be in New York in twenty minutes. Meet you outside Stark towers." With that I hung up.

I grabbed the bag I always kept packed for instances such as this, my sword, and quickly put my clothes on. Then I ran outside the house and cave, spread my wings and took off into the sky.

. . .

I landed in Grand Central inside the forest and put my trench coat on to cover my wings, then placed gloves over my hands and sunglasses over my eyes. I walked out of the forest and jogged all the way to Stark towers, darting around people. It was dark by now and I probably looked weird running in the dark with sunglasses, but I could see perfectly fine and picked Coulson out of the crowd easily.

Just as we got in the elevator to head up to Stark's private floor I heard the sound of Ironman's suit coming in for the landing and, even all these floors down, I could faintly hear the rumble of his voice though I couldn't make out what was being said. Then the doors closed and I could only hear the mechanical whirr of the elevator.

I glanced over at Coulson and saw he was on the phone and calling someone, I suspect Stark. I heard him speaking to someone but the voice I could hear was not completely human so I guessed it was Stark's AI… JARVIS I believe.

"Mr. Stark we need to talk," Coulson said formally.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark." I heard the narcissistic voice on the other end say. "Please leave a message."

The elevator dinged as Coulson said "This is urgent."

And the doors slid open just as Stark said "Then leave it urgently." At that moment we all caught sight of each other. Tony was kneeling on the ground around wine on a coffee table with Pepper Potts. "Security breach." He pointed to his girlfriend "It's on you."

"Mr. Stark," Coulson said blandly.

"Phil!" Pepper Potts said, getting up to walk over. "Come in."

I heard Stark say "Phil?"

Coulson walked into the room and I followed, earning funny looks from the two former occupants of the room "We can't stay."

"His first name is 'Agent.'"

I snorted at stark, earning more funny looks.

"Come on in." Potts said happily. "We're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay," Stark said through his teeth.

I stuck my hand out to quickly shake hands with Potts "Agent Vivian Blackthorn."

She took my hand, shook it, and then dropped it while giving it a surprised look. I knew that look, she felt its coldness. "Pepper Potts and this," she stopped looking at my hand and gestured to Stark "Is Tony Stark."

I nodded to him but, when he extended his hand to me with a playboy grin, I ignored it.

"We need you to look this over," I said, taking the SHIELD issue touch pad that Coulson had given me earlier and trying to hand it to him. "As soon as possible."

He stared at the pad "I don't like being handed things."

"That's fine because I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." Pepper said, taking the pad from my hands and handed me her wine glass. Then she turned, gave Stark the pad and took his wine glass, then took a drink from it with a small "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are one through five every other Thursday." Stark said.

"This isn't a consultation." Coulson replied still blandly.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked curiously, now getting her own share of funny looks from the two of us. "Which I know nothing about."

Stark huffed and started to walk away "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either."

I glanced over at Coulson and saw he was smiling at Stark.

"Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know."

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Coulson interrupted the entertaining banter.

"Whatever." Stark had stopped at the desk by the window and gestured to his girlfriend "Ms. Potts, got a second?"

Pepper made a face at us "Half a mo."

I turned to Coulson "I'm volatile, slightly self-obsessed, and don't play well with others. I qualified."

He raised an eyebrow at me but a smile played at his lips "But you are not Tony Stark."

I opened my mouth, paused with a thoughtful expression, and said "True."

We looked over in time to see Stark swipe his hands over the screen of the touch pad and projections pop up all around the desk of the profiles of each of the possible Avengers as well as the problem. Noise filled the room.

I noticed they were talking but focused instead on the projections. After a moment Pepper walked over to join us.

"So, any chance you're driving by LaGuardia?" She asked.

We turned to go into the elevator "I can drop you."

"Fantastic. I want to hear about the cellist. Is that still a thing?"

"She moved back to Portland."

"What? Boo!"

I spent the entire elevator ride and walk to Coulson's car, Lola, listening to the two talk before abruptly stopping a little ways away from his car in the abandoned lot. Pepper and Coulson stopped as well and turned back to look at me.

"I'll meet you on the Helecarrier." I said to Coulson then turned to Pepper. "You are about to see something really cool. Don't tell Tony." When she nodded I took off my sunglasses, stepped back, took off my trench coat, and allowed my wings to unfurl. Then I ran away from them and jumped into the air, roaring in a very dragon-like way.

Faintly I heard Pepper say "Whoa." And Coulson chuckled.

 

Author's note: I wrote this story about two years ago and started posting chapters a few months ago on Fanfiction.net, though I go by a different screen name. I have been debating whether or not to post it on here for a while and only just decided. I hope you like it.

Also note that the chapter's title is a veiled reference to Vivian's age, given its meaning and the fact it's in a dead language.


	2. The Start of Something Big

Once on the Helecarrier I greeted Natasha and read the briefing. Apparently Loki, an Asgardian, took the tesseract and was going to use it to take over the world. Great. At least we had some of our own muscle to beat him back.  
I glanced up as one of the oddly shaped planes landed, letting Coulson and one Steve Rodgers, otherwise known as Captain America, out of it.  
I gave my touch pad to one of the passing Agents under orders to put it in my room, placed my sunglasses and trench coat back on, and walked with Natasha to the plane.  
“Agent Romanoff, Agent Blackthorn, Captain Rodgers,” I glanced over at Coulson and noticed the suppressed excitement in his eyes.  
“Ma’am.”  
I nodded while Natasha said “Hi.” Then she turned to Coulson and said “They need you on the bridge. They’re starting the face-trace.”  
“See you there,” Coulson walked off stiffly.  
Natasha started walking and the Captain and I followed “It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I though Coulson was going to swoon.”  
I snorted and nodded; even though I wasn’t there I had heard a lot about it from Natasha and Clint, who would come visit me in the forest when they weren’t on missions.  
“Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?” Natasha continued, giving me a look over through the corner of her eye.  
“Trading cards?” the Captain asked with a look that said he was trying to suppress laughter.  
“They’re vintage. He’s very proud.” Natasha replied with a small smile.  
I looked in the direction we were going to see Dr. Bruce Banner looking around with a slightly overwhelmed expression.  
“Doctor Banner,” Cap called to the nervous man.  
He walked quickly up to us and shook the Cap’s hand “Oh. Yeah. Hi. They told me you were coming.”  
“Word is you can find the cube.”  
Banner looked around “Is that the only word on me?”  
“Only word I care about,” the Cap responded.  
Banner kept on looking around but looked back at the Cap a lot “It must be strange for you, all this.”  
I glanced around at the soldiers around us preforming their duties.  
“Well, this is actually kind of familiar,” Cap rumbled.  
I stepped closer to the two men and looked up at Cap as he looked slightly down at me, since I was only a little shorter then him “Don’t worry Cap, I just spent six years in a wildlife preserve. I’m not used to being back.”  
His eyebrows went up and he looked like he was about to ask me something but Natasha interrupted “Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. Its gonna get a little hard to breath.”  
That’s when the preparation alarms started going off. I smiled as the two men got very bewildered expressions.  
“Is this a submarine?” Cap asked.  
Natasha and I glanced at each other with small smiles.  
“Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?” Banner asked sarcastically.  
The two men walked to the edge and saw the turbines rising out of the water, already moving.  
“No, no, this is much worse,” Banner said.  
We rose in the air quickly and my excitement grew. All of a sudden I dropped my trench coat, ran straight to the edge and jumped off, earning gasps from the Captain and Banner. I free fell down towards the water below us and, at the last moment, allowed my wings to unfurl and I pulled up sharply. I flew over the water, letting my hand run through it so a spray shot up behind me, then I swooped pack up to land on the rapidly climbing Helecarrier. I smirked at the two men, my wings folding onto my back and I picked my trench coat up from the ground then placed it back on. I took off my sunglasses and placed them in the jacket pocket before following Natasha inside. A split second later the men followed.  
Natasha and I led them to the Bridge, where Director Fury was waiting. It was loud in there, with many agents working away at their desks, searching for Loki and the people he hypnotized. The Cap looked slightly excited by this new thing he had never seen before and Banner was a jittery as ever, giving all the Agents looks of apprehension. I just leaned against the conference table and watched.  
A moment later we were level and Fury instructed for the reflection panels to be activated.  
One eyed Nick Fury in a trench coat a lot like mine turned around to face us “Gentlemen. Agent.”  
Cap walked up to Fury’s side, handed him a bill, cast a glance over his shoulder at me, and walked down to Fury’s station. I saw Hill looking at him.  
“Doctor,” Fury said, going to shake hands with Banner. “Thank you for coming.”  
Banner took his hand and shook it with an odd look on his face “Thanks for asking nicely. So, um, how long am I staying?”  
“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the wind.”  
“Where are you with that?”  
Fury pointed to Coulson, who just appeared “We’re sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops... If its connected to a satellite, it’s eyes and ears for us.”  
“That’s still not gonna find them in time.” Natasha stated, crouching by the screen displaying Clint’s info.  
“You’re going to have to narrow your field,” Banner said to Fury. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?”  
“How many are there?” Fury asked without really asking.  
“Call every lab you know.” Banner took off his jacket, all business. “Tell them to put the spectrometers of the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I’ll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?”  
“Agent Romanoff,” Fury called, catching Natasha’s attention. “Could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?”  
Natasha swept by Banner, leading him out the door “You’re gonna love it, Doc. We’ve got all the toys.”  
Fury walked to me, leaning against the table beside me and looked at me through the corner of his good eye.  
“This is personal for her, you know,” I said, watching them leave.  
He nodded and crossed his arms stiffly “What do you think of the team?”  
I sighed and turned to look at him “Their aura’s are all off. Natasha’s is consumed by her anger over Clint. Banner is too nervous that he’ll hurt someone and that fear could easily turn to anger. Captain is out of his element by far and that is throwing his entire emotional scale out of whack. Stark is too narcissistic even for me and still hasn’t shown up despite numerous calls and one social visit by myself and Coulson.” He nodded and signaled for me to continue “The team is questionable at best. There needs to be one completely stable person, none of them are at the moment and we both know it isn’t me, I have my own set of problems.”  
He nodded, frowned, and walked away. I took that as my dismissal and walked out to head to the room I was assigned.  
I placed my bag on the bed with a thump and unzipped it. I pulled out a cat suit very similar to Natasha’s except it was metallic, a deep black unlike her grey, in was a tighter fit and made of a more flexible material, didn’t have the SHIELD symbol, didn’t have the wrist things or the tight collar just one that stuck out like a vampiric design, had a sword sheath instead of gun holders attached to an actual belt designed to hang on my waist, and instead of having the hour glass symbol on the cloth belt around the stomach (which I didn’t have) it had a dark grey dragon wing shape on the top of my right thigh. There were double slits down the back for my wings.  
I quickly slid the suit on with the belt and the heeled boots, and then walked back to the Bridge. By the time I got there Cap was already back and talking to Coulson. I flipped over the table and sat down on it, getting funny looks from a lot of the agents.  
Suddenly one of the computer’s went off and the agent sitting at it turned around “We got a hit. A 67% match. Wait. Cross match 79%.”  
Coulson walked up to the agent and I flipped over the handrail to join up behind him.  
“Location?” I asked before Coulson could.  
“Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He’s not exactly hiding.”  
“Captain, Blackthorn, you’re up.”  
We nodded and headed out. Part way down the hall I looked over at the Captain and saw he was blushing and trying not to look at me. I chuckled and ran off to the lab.  
When I got there all I had to do was look at Natasha and we were running to the oddly shaped plane. We met the Captain there and were off to Germany at a speed that would make fighter jet pilots jealous. We got there in two hours, and I flew off the plane.  
I landed behind Loki, uh, the Loki closest to the museum, on a ledge several floors up in clear sight of any humans looking in that Loki’s direction, which was most of them.  
I watched as an old man stood up and looked to the Loki I had dubbed Real Loki. The old man said in a voice raspy with age and unused to English “Not to men like you.”  
Loki chuckled “There are no men like me.”  
“There are always men like you.”  
I jumped off the ledge and swooped to just above the man, nearby the quiet SHIELD plane. Now I could see the smirk on Loki’s face.  
“Look to your elder, people,” he said, moving his scepter to point the blade at the old man. “Let him be an example.”  
Hearing the whirring of the scepter I dropped straight down so I was behind the old man and closed my wings around him, protecting him from the ray that shot out of the scepter but it never hit me.


	3. Stuttgart

I looked up to see Captain standing on a ledge in front of me, his shield slightly smoking, and Loki on the ground.  
“You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.” Captain said, walking forward as he spoke.  
I released the man and moved so I was standing in front of him with wings out stretched so they grazed the tops of people’s heads.  
“The soldier,” Loki said disdainfully, standing up and laughing breathily. “The man out of time.”  
“I’m not the one who’s out of time,” Cap responded as the plane came down low behind us.  
A huge gun dropped out of the bottom of it and pointed at him.  
“Loki,” Natasha’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker “Drop the weapon and stand down.”  
Loki swung the scepter to point at the ship and shot at it. The bolt of light missed thanks to Natasha’s awesome driving. Cap chucked his shield at Loki and I roared, smoke billowing out of my mouth.  
“Go!” I yelled swinging my arms over the crowd.  
They all stood up and ran away from the battle, some screaming. I glanced over at the fight that had commenced in time to see Cap kick Loki in the face. Loki got sent back a few feet and I breathed fire at him, but it merely singed his clothes, after all they were Asgardian. Loki knocked Cap to the ground and I jumped at him. He swung the sharpened end of his spear at me and it sliced open my side.  
I jumped as loud heavy metal music pounded out of the speaker. Both men got funny looks on their faces and I laughed, knowing the idiot who would do such a thing. I dove to the ground, grabbing Cap, since he was lying on the ground now thanks to Loki, and drug him over a few feet.  
Ironman appeared in the sky and shot Loki with his repulsers, then landed. When he stood again he pointed numerous guns and a repulser at him.  
Cap stood up and grabbed his shield to go stand by Stark, and I heard Stark say something, then Stark again, the Cap, and Stark again but I didn’t hear what they said since I was busy nursing the wound in my side.  
Next thing I knew the Cap picked me up and took me to the ship, where he set me down on one of the chairs and set about cleaning my wounds but I waved him off. Once he released me and took a step back I waved my hand over the wound, concentrating hard, and it healed right before our eyes. Then a moment later the rip in my suit fixed itself to perfection. I raised an eyebrow at the curious expressions of the occupants of the plane, including Loki, who was sitting on the chair straight on the opposite half of the ship.  
I laid down, stretched across the chairs on my side, on my stomach and folded up my wings.  
A little while into the flight Fury’s voice came out of the comm link.  
“Is he saying anything?”  
“Not a word,” Natasha replied softly, her voice dangerously low.  
“Just get him here. We’re low on time.”  
“I don’t like it,” Cap said, not quite whispering to Stark.  
“What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?” Stark replied without taking his eyes off of Loki.  
I saw Loki shift to look more at them, obviously listening  
“I don’t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop.”  
“Still, you’re spry for an older fellow,” Stark finally looked away from Loki to look at Cap. “What’s your thing, Pilates?”  
“What?”  
“It’s like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle.”  
“If you wanna know about being spry when you’re older, you shouldn’t ask him, just me,” I finally said, catching the male’s attention.  
The two men looked at me with frowns and Stark asked “How old are you?” which got him an irritated expression from the Cap, since it was considered rude to ask a girl her age.  
I shrugged “I dunno.” I glanced over at Loki to see him staring at me intently. I jerked my thumb at him “Older then Cow Head.”  
The two men blinked at me for a moment before returning at their former conversation.  
“Fury didn’t tell me he was calling you in,” Cap glared.  
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things Fury doesn’t tell you.”  
Lightning suddenly filled the sky and thunder clapped around us.  
“Where’s this coming from?” Natasha asked.  
I swung myself to my feet and looked out the front window. I turned around to see Loki with a scared expression.  
“What’s the matter?” Cap asked him. “Scared of a little lightning?”  
“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” Loki replied looking from Cap to the ceiling.  
I mumbled a curse word in a language only Loki understood and grabbed the chair to keep from toppling over.  
A loud thump resounded through the plane as something large landed of the roof of it, jostling the entire plane slightly out of path. I glanced over to see the other heroes grabbing their stuff. I straightened and pulled my sword from its sheath.  
The long near black blade glistened in the dull light and Loki shot me a look of shock.  
I glanced up at Stark as he pushed the button to drop the back of the plane.  
“What are you doing?” Cap yelled.  
Stark didn’t respond, just kept walking towards the open back. With a loud thump a huge man with long blond hair landed on the open lid of the back and started walking towards Loki. Stark automatically went to stop him but the large man whacked him in the chest with his hammer, grabbed Loki by his neck, and dragged him off the plane into the darkness below.  
I glanced over at Stark as he stood up again. “Now there’s that guy,” he rumbled tiredly.  
“Another Asgardian?” Natasha yelled.  
“Thor,” I yelled to the occupants.  
“Do you think that guy’s a friendly?” Cap yelled.  
“Doesn’t matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost.” Stark turned away to go jump out the back.  
“Stark, we need a plan of attack!” Cap yelled, ever the intelligent one.  
“I have a plan. Attack.” With that Stark jetted out of the plane after Thor and Loki.  
I turned to the Cap, shrugged, and jumped out after Stark.


	4. Thor, God of Thunder

The wind whistled around me as I fell like a bullet after the light of Stark’s suit. Abruptly it disappeared into the mountains, appeared again, and disappeared into the rapidly growing forest. I pulled my wings out and flew over where I saw Loki crouching on the rocks and flew down to the fighting males. I landed in one of the trees and just watched the two men fight like the idiots they were, unseen or heard by them. I followed them when they moved elsewhere and watched as Thor started to defeat Stark, but did nothing for now.

Suddenly Cap appeared and stopped the two from fighting by hitting him each with his thrown shield.

“That’s enough,” he said sternly as if reprimanding children. He jumped down from the decimated tree he was standing on and dropped fifteen feet to level with them with only a grunt. “Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here.”

“I’ve come here to put an end to Loki’s schemes,” Thor half yelled, anger clouding his face.

“Then prove it. Put that hammer down.” Cap said calmly.

I saw Thor tense and I dropped from the tree, sword at the ready but still out of sight.

“Uh, yeah… no,” Stark said from his position by Thor. “Bad call. He loves his-” at this Thor hit him with his hammer, sending Stark flying back through the trees.

“You want me to put the hammer down?” Thor said, his anger boiling over. He jumped through the air and flew down to hit Cap with his hammer.

As Cap raised his shield to protect himself I darted into Thor’s path to Cap, stopping right in front of the shield, and raised my sword. When hammer met sword lighting cracked around us and fire lit some small trees. I shoved the captain back quite a ways with one hand and took his shield to brace behind the sword mere nanoseconds before a lightning bolt came down and hit Thor and I. There was an explosion and wind filled the area, knocking down a bunch of trees and blowing us all back. When the dust cleared we were laying under piles of broken limbs and Cap’s Shield with my sword were laying on my chest in the middle of the circular clearing we had made.

I heard groaning as the others climbed to their feet and I myself stood up and passed Cap’s shield to him.

“Are we done here?” Cap asked breathily, still watching me with a confused expression as I put my sword in its sheath.

Thor looked around and nodded.

I went to take a step, then stumbled and fell into Cap’s arms. I glanced up at the soldier and blushed lightly. I righted myself and spread my wings. I flew up to the mountain top where Loki sat, waiting, and pulled him to his feet.

The others quickly joined me and Natasha picked us up.

As we flew I sat on the chair I had previously been occupying with my sword in my lap. The sword itself was undamaged, which brought many confused looks from the rest of the team and Thor, except Natasha until Stark filled her in.

I glanced up from examining the sword as Thor came to stand in from of me.

“Your sword, is it of Asgardian design?”

I shook my head and looked him in the eye “No, but did you really think that your hammer was the only weapon forged in that star?” I ran my hand down the blade without hurting myself even though the sword was obviously sharpened. “Not the power of lightning, however. Mine is of pure war magic.”

Thor nodded and walked away to stand nearby where his brother was once again seated.


	5. Older Than Dirt

When we got back to the Helecarrier I followed Loki’s guards to the chamber designed for Banner… and myself. They sealed him in and I followed Fury up to the control area.  
“In case it’s unclear,” Fury began “you try to escape,” he tapped a few buttons “you so much as scratch that glass,” the seal underneath the cage opened so that air rushed in and out, creating a lot of noise, and Loki went to look “It’s 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?” Fury pressed a few more buttons and the seal closed. Fury gestured to Loki “Ant,” he gestured to the control center “Boot.”  
Loki laughed and stepped away from the glass “It’s an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.”  
“Built for something a lot stronger than you,” Fury glanced over his shoulder at me as I stared at the cage. “And something else much more savage.”  
“Oh, I’ve heard,” he turned to look at the camera nearby and started to walk towards it. “A mindless beast, makes play he’s still a man.” He turned to look me right in the eyes. “And a lizard full of unintelligent rage barely contained.” I flinched visibly, which made Loki’s smile grow. “How desperate are you,” he asked, turning his focus back to Fury “that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”  
“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it’s fun.” As he spoke Fury approached the glass. “You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”  
“Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. Unlimited power. And for what?” Loki smiled and turned to look at the camera “A warm light for all mankind to share.” He slowly turned back to look at Fury. “And then to be reminded what real power is.”  
Even though I could only see his back I could feel Fury’s small smirk. He turned away and nodded to me then began to descend the stairs “Well, let me know if ‘real power’ wants a magazine or something.”  
Loki turned to look at the camera.  
I pulled one of the nearby chairs to sit by the cage and propped my legs up on one of the metal bars, watching Loki as he turned from the camera and sat on the bed thingy on the side of the cage. He returned my gaze with a raised eyebrow.  
“You’re in my room,” I chuckled.  
“I gather,” Loki said, boredom evident in his tone.  
“I heard that you’re a frost giant, Cow Head,” I said, mirroring his tone.  
He stiffened and glared at me “Apparently. But I am not among them.”  
“A frost giant living in the palace of Odin for millennia,” I said thoughtfully. “More than many of them would get.”  
He rolled his eyes and went quiet before saying “You were holding back, before.”  
I nodded “Of course. I wanted to see if there was any of the you I used to know still in there.” I stood up, a fireball appearing in my hand “But now that I see there is not, there will be no sympathy, no remorse if I am forced to slay you.” My eyes glowed brighter. “I will mourn for the friend I had all those years ago, not the man he became.” With that I turned and swept out of the room.  
I walked into the bridge in time to hear Stark saying something about Galaga. I ignored the group of people around me, opting to sit down at the table next to Cap. I stared at the table for a while until I heard Banner start talking right behind me.  
“He’d have to heat the cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.”  
Stark spread his hands out and looked around at us then started to walk towards Banner “Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.”  
“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.”  
Stark said “Finally, someone who speaks English.”  
“Is that what just happened?” Cap said quietly from beside me.  
I leaned over to him and whispered “Don’t worry, I’m older then dirt and didn’t understand that.”  
He chuckled and turned so he was looking me in the eyes. I smiled and leaned away from him.  
“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube,” Fury said, approaching us from nowhere. “I was hoping you might join him.”  
“I’d start with that stick of his,” Cap said. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”  
“I don’t know about that, but it’s powered by the cube,” Fury said. “And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”  
“Monkeys? I do not understand.” Thor frowned.  
“I do,” Cap said excitedly. I felt Stark roll his eyes and sigh even though I couldn’t see him. “I-I understood that reference.”  
I patted Cap’s shoulder and smiled, knowing that people still used references to stuff from his time made him feel better about this world. As Stark and Banner left I stood and breathed a little fire after them, causing heat to hit the back of Stark’s head but not hurting him. When he turned back with Banner I scowled at him and mouthed a sentence that started with ‘F’ and ended with ‘you.’  
They turned away, Banner chuckling and Stark scowling, and continued to the lab.


	6. Anger Issues

I walked with Cap into the lab in time to see Stark poke Banner with something sharp.  
“Hey!” Cap yelled.  
“Nothing?” Stark asked, momentarily ignoring Cap.  
“Are you nuts?”  
“Jury’s out,” Stark replied, getting a laugh from Banner. He started speaking to Banner again. “You really got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?”  
“Is everything a joke to you?” Cap asked rhetorically.  
“Funny things are.”  
“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doc.”  
“It-it’s alright,” Banner stuttered. “I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things.”  
“You’re tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut.”  
“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark,” Cap said angrily.  
For a quick moment my brain buzzed and mindless anger filled me before fading just as quickly as it had arrived.  
“You think I’m not?” Stark asked, recapturing my attention. “Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”  
“You think Fury’s hiding something?”  
“He’s a spy. Captain, he’s ‘the’ spy. His secrets have secrets.” He put a handful of blueberries in his mouth and gestured to Banner, who was still working “It’s buggin him too. Isn’t it?”  
“Uh,” Banner shook his head and waved his hands over his papers. “I just want to finish my work here, and…”  
“Doctor?” Cap interrupted.  
Banner slowly looked over at Stark, sighed, and then looked at Cap “’A warm light for all mankind.’ Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube.”  
“I heard it.”  
“Well, I think that was meant for you,” Banner gestured to Stark with his hand. Stark stared at him for a moment before holding out the silver packet he had in hand to Banner, which smelled of blueberries. Banner shrugged and reached into it “Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”  
“The Stark tower? That big, ugly…” Cap trailed off when Stark turned to glare at him before continuing on cautiously “building in New York?”  
“It’s powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source.” Banner looked up at Stark from the scepter. “That building will run itself for what, a year?”  
“It’s just a prototype,” Stark shrugged and turned to Cap. “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That’s what he’s getting at.”  
“So why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the tesseract project?” Banner asked. “What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”  
“I should probably look into that,” Stark walked around Banner to the other end of the table and pulled out his Starkphone “Once by decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files.”  
“I’m sorry. Did you say…” Cap started.  
Stark was quick to interrupt “JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?” Stark offered the bag to Cap.  
“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around,” Cap said without even looking at the bag.  
“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?” Stark asked rhetorically. “Historically, not awesome.”  
“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up.” Cap replied, all soldier boy. “This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don’t stay focused, he’ll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them.”  
“Following is not really my style,” Stark ate some blueberries.  
A smirk graced the face of the Cap, subtle but noticeable enough to signal that he thought he had a trump card “And you’re all about style, aren’t you?”  
“Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use.”  
I shot my hand up to cover my mouth as I chuckled so softly that no one but Stark noticed, since I was standing next to and slightly behind Cap and he was looking in that direction. He raised his eyebrows at me and grinned.  
“Steve,” Banner said quietly, catching Cap’s steeled attention “tell me none of this smells a little funky to you.”  
Cap turned to look back at Stark and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head, not really but you get what I mean. “Just find the cube,” Cap said coldly as he walked out of the room.  
I plopped down on one of the tables, the one most empty, and pulled the holographic screen hanging from the ceiling in front of me to examine everything.  
“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about?” Stark asked, obviously kind of pissed. “I’m wondering if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice.”  
“He’s not wrong about Loki,” I said, watching the two males work for a moment before looking back at the screen. “Loki always has the jump on everyone. Its why he’s considered the God of Mischief. I know Loki and he’s planning something.” Then I mumbled “But I haven’t figured out what yet.”  
“What he’s got is an Acme dynamite kit. It’s going to blow up in his face. And I’m going to be there when it does.”  
“Yeah. I’ll read all about it.” Banner said with a smile.  
“Uh-huh. Or you’ll be suiting up with the rest of us.”  
Banner chuckled “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”  
I barked a laugh from my position on the table right next to Banner “And I got the same anger issues as the other guy.”  
Banner looked at me strangely and went back to work.  
“You know, I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it.” Stark turned away from the screen he was working on and tapped the arc reactor glowing softly behind his shirt. “This little circle of light, it’s part of me know, not just armor.” As he spoke he walked slowly over to us. “It’s a terrible privilege.”  
“But you can control it,” Both Banner and I spoke at once. We exchanged a look before looking back at Stark.  
“Because I learned how,” Stark said softly.  
“Its different,” Banner said and started continuing working.  
Stark swept all the figures and equations and such away to the side of the screen “Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you.”  
“It might have killed me, and I survived my world’s sun collapsing and the whole planet coming apart.” I mumbled.  
“So you’re saying that the Hulk…” Banner paused and shook himself. “The other guy saved my life. That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”  
“I guess we’ll find out,” Stark replied, maintaining eye contact with Banner before walking away.  
“You may not enjoy that.”  
“And you just might.”  
All was quiet for a moment before something occurred to me.  
“Stark,” I said, capturing his and Banner’s attention. “Do me a favor and, when your decryption is complete, don’t look at my file.”  
He froze what he was doing to look me in the eye “Why?”  
I shuffled and shifted on the table “There are some things I would rather stay buried that only Fury is aware of.”  
His eyebrows shot up but he didn’t say anything.  
“What kind of things?” Banner surprised me by speaking up.  
I turned slowly to look at him and my eyes flashed to solid black, as they do when I’m using dark magic. I lifted a hand and a tendril of black and sparkly energy swirled and slithered around my spread and bent fingers like a snake. “The kind of things that would make what happened with the Abomination look like two kids having a temper tantrum.”  
Banner flinched and his eyes widened. Stark grunted in a strange way from the other side of the room and returned to work. We all fell silent.


	7. To Be Used

After a moment I walked from the room and treaded silently through the halls to the cage in which Loki was imprisoned. I stopped around the corner in the hall as I heard Natasha and him talking.  
“Oh… Is this love, Agent Romanoff?” Loki asked, his voice soft and soothing but underlying was pure evil.  
“Love is for children, I owe him a debt,” Natasha replied her voice quiet.  
“Tell me.”  
Natasha sighed “Before I worked for SHIELD I, uh… Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn’t care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call.”  
“And what will you do if I vow to spare him?”  
“Not let you out.”  
“Oh. No, but I like this.” I heard Loki’s smile. “Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man.”  
“Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that. I’m Russian. Or I was.”  
“And what are you now?”  
There was a click as Natasha stood from her chair “It’s really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger, I’d like to wipe it out.”  
“Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov’s daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything.” I heard Natasha’s heart quicken and then slow again. “Your ledger is dripping. It’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?” Loki’s voice was growing more loud and condescending. “This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!” His voice started dropping in pitch. “You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away.” There was a slam of Loki’s fist against the glass of the cage and his voice began dripping of malice. “I won’t touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I’ll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim.”  
The sound of sobbing reached my ears and I instantly knew she was playing him. “You’re a monster.”  
Loki’s cruel laughter sounded “Oh, no. You brought the monsters.”  
The sobbing stopped suddenly “So, Banner and Blackthorn. That’s your play.”  
“What?”  
“Loki means to unleash the Hulk and the Drake.” Natasha’s voice was all business as she started to leave the room. “Keep Banner in the lab, I’m on my way. Send Thor as well. And find Vivian.” The footsteps stopped, giving me time to step into the shadows. “Thank you for your cooperation.”  
Natasha rushed out of the room, froze, and grabbed me by the arm. She began pulling me in the direction of the lab. My anger sparked and I felt what was known as the Drake moving below the surface of my skin. My head buzzed as I forced her, or me, into the deep cave in my mind where that power dwells.  
We arrived at the lab at the same time Thor did to Banner, Fury, Cap, and Tony arguing.  
“Did you know about this?” Banner asked, his eyes fixed on us.  
My eyes turned to the HYDRA weapon on the table near Cap and Drake reared her head and forced her way out of the cave once again.  
“No,” I growled, ignoring the others as their argument escalated. “No. No. No.”  
“But you’re not the only people out there, are you?” Fury said as my mind tuned into their conversation and I could feel his eyes turn to me. “And you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, that can’t be controlled.”  
“Like you controlled the cube?” Cap asked.  
I tuned out again and took careful measured steps to the Hydra weapon. I approached it, unnoticed by the others why were too busy arguing to notice me. I wrapped a hand around the weapon and saw my hands had their claws extended. I dug my claws into the chamber where the energy from the Tesseract would be and watched as dark energy dripped off my claws, filling up the chamber and casting a black glow. I glanced over at the scepter on the table and watched as a tiny, near unnoticeable tendril of the blue energy flowed out of the gem stone, down and off the table, across the floor, and up the table the HYDRA weapon rested upon to wrap around my hand and flow into the chamber my claws were embedded in to mix with my dark energy, turning it into a mass of swirls of black and Tesseract blue. Then it flowed out of the chamber and into my hand. I pulled my claws from the weapon and closed my still clawed hands around the energy. I watched as tendrils seeped out of either side of my fist and changed shape until it was the exact size and shape of the scepter on the table nearby, which had stopped feeding energy out of itself and to me.  
Suddenly I heard a strange beeping and I snapped out of my stupor, not realizing that I had the odd scepter in my hand, even though I had watched it create itself.  
“In case you needed to kill me, but you can’t, I know, I tried,” I heard Banner say and I looked to him, still not noticing the weird scepter. Everyone stared at him. “I got low. I didn’t see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show,” I noticed that Banner now had the original scepter in his hand “and put everyone here a risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?”  
“Dr. Banner, put down the scepter,” Cap said stiffly but in a soothing manner.  
Banner looked down at the scepter and I noticed it looked as if he had no idea he had it in hand.  
A ringing went off from the computer and Banner placed the scepter down to go look at it. I suddenly became very aware of a burning horrible pain in my hand as the others started arguing about the Tesseract and where it belonged. I looked down at my hand to see the weird scepter and tried to let go of it, only to realize I couldn’t open my hand.  
“Natasha,” I said loudly getting her attention.  
I glanced up at her and saw she and Fury were staring at the thing in my hand. They both had their guns in hand and seemed ready to shoot me if need be.  
“I can’t let go,” I said as I looked at them, gripping the wrist of the hand holding the scepter with my other hand.  
All of a sudden the energy changed from the scepter shape into a snake-like shape and lunged out of my hand and dissolved into my chest. I let out a scream as blinding pain filled me and there was an explosion, though I knew I didn’t create it from the beeping I had been hearing. There was a burst of fire and I was thrown in the direction Cap and Stark were.  
“Put on the suit,” Cap said.  
“Yep.”  
I heard the two men climb up and Cap pulled me to my feet from where I was lying just outside the doorway they had landed near. My eyes were screwed shut and I felt the Drake climb out of my mind and begin to take control, pulled by the energy that jumped into my chest.  
Cap half carried me as we went through the halls in the direction of his shield and Stark’s armor, as I could gather by their loud talking.  
Part way to the armory I shoved myself from the Cap and opened my eyes. The two men before me did a double take as they saw my eyes, which had become solid purple, without pupils or whites. I fell to the ground, pain consuming me.  
I jerked my head up and yelled in a voice that was one step from being a feminine roar “Run!”


	8. First of Battles

The two men exchanged glances, and ran off. I glanced up to see Agents of all ages giving my wide berth as they ran to their stations.  
I let out a roar as my body twisted and changed, my cat suit literally melting off me and vanishing as it did so. My entire body stretched and grew until I took up almost the entire hall and I grew black scales that covered my body. My teeth all changed to fangs and my claws appeared completely and grew to massive proportions as my legs bent to strange positions, causing me to immediately balance on my toes. My head twisted until it was snouted and small horns burst from my jaw and larger ones from the top of my head. A tail grew from the base of my spine. Spines appeared down the middle of my back from right behind my horns to a little past the base of my tail. My wings grew to fit the size of my body and, finally, my eyes gained a single thin slit down the center of each.  
I roared and grinned reptilian-like as several rushing agents jumped. They all turned to stare at me and I noticed Coulson among them. He stared for a moment and then I heard him speak into his comm as he rushed away “The Drake is loose. I can’t tell whose more in control right now.”  
I roared again and ran down the hall, causing agents to press themselves against the walls, as fast as I could without tearing the room up too much that I couldn’t run anymore. I followed the scent of Cap and Stark, after Stark went for his suit.  
‘Kill, kill, kill,’ I heard the voice of the Drake say in my head.  
I was cut off my rout to the damaged engine by men shooting their guns at me. I knew these to be Loki’s men because they didn’t know that it was a bad idea to shoot me. I roared at the soldiers and grabbed them with my teeth, tearing into their small bodies.  
Once I was finished, I dashed into the engine to find that one part of it was completely destroyed. I could hear Stark inside the engine and saw Cap looking at a wiring panel of some sort. I growled at Cap before I jumped off the damaged area after climbing through the doorway, destroying the entire thing, on my stomach. I swept through the air and saw three jets coming towards the Helecarrier. Everyone on the planes had off auras so I instantly knew them to be more of Loki’s men.  
I swooped towards them and latched onto the first jet, pulling it into the second. They both exploded. The third jet started firing at me, but the bullets pinged uselessly off my scales. I grabbed onto the jet’s wing-like things and ripped them off before jumping off myself, sending the jet spinning towards Earth.  
I swooped back to the damaged engine and flew next to it, watching Cap carefully with a hunter’s gaze. I saw him engage the men who tried to continue blowing up the engine and saw him throw one man out of the damaged area. The men started shooting at him and he shot back. That’s when I came in.  
I swooped down low and breathed at the man who was shooting at Cap. Black fire burst from my gaping maw heading for the two but I took control long enough to force it to flow around Cap without hurting him and to the man who was shooting, eating up his life force and burning up his body. When the fire vanished another man appeared and I swept away to watch Cap and the man battle it out from a place where I could be ready to attack.  
‘No, Drake. Cap is our friend, no attacking him.’ I growled at her in my head.  
‘Human. Food.’ She growled back, her voice bloodthirsty.  
Cap fell out of the jet from backing from the spray of bullets fired in his direction and was only holding on by a wire. I swooped down so I was right underneath him should he fall, wrestling control away from Drake for the moment.  
I looked down at the ground at a yell that sounded very much like Thor and saw the cage falling. I glanced quickly up at Cap and saw he was safe again, so I dived towards the ground after the cage, but pulled up when it vanished among the clouds.  
I flew back to the Helecarrier and through the hole where the cage used to be as it automatically closed.  
I climbed over the railing and saw Coulson lying against the wall with a huge gun-like thing in his lap and a gaping hole in his chest. Drake recoiled in my mind and I gained full control again.  
I ran to him, changing back to human and my clothes appearing on me as I went, and grabbed his hand. As I sat there I noticed that the sounds of battle had stopped. I glanced up to see Fury had arrived and I shuffled over to allow him access to Coulson.  
As Fury lifted the gun from his lap Coulson mumbled “Sorry Boss. The god rabbited.”  
“Just stay awake,” Fury said, his eye wet and a little red. “Eyes on me.”  
“No. I’m clocking out here.”  
“Not an option.”  
“It’s okay, boss. This was never gonna work if they didn’t have something to…” Coulson stopped breathing.  
All was silent for a minute, then Fury stood, let the doctors come to Coulson, and reached for his earpiece and said sadly into it “Agent Coulson is down.”  
As he continued speaking I felt Drake rear her head again. Instead of changing to her form once again I let out a strangled cry that sounded throughout the room and echoed through Fury’s earpiece, which was still on. I knew the others heard it.


	9. Rage

After a while in which I just sat against the rail an agent grabbed me and pulled me to my feet, then dragged me to the Bridge. I was nothing more than a limp body following his every pull. He planted me on one of the chairs and walked away.  
Several minutes later the others came in and sat down. I felt their grief and saw it in their auras.  
I saw that Fury had cards in his hands when he appeared and recognized them as Coulson’s Captain America trading cards.  
Fury raised the blood splattered cards “These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket.” I heard his heart jump with the lie but I didn’t care, I was too consumed with suppressed rage but neither Drake nor I wanted to change to her form so I remained as I was. “I guess he never did get you to sign them.” Fury threw the cards at Cap and they landed on the table, putting little splotches on it. Cap sighed and picked up a card. “We’re dead in the air up here,” Fury continued. “Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.” Fury paused to look at us then started walking around the table. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier.” Another pause. “There was an idea, Stark and Blackthorn know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.” I looked up from where I was staring on the table and saw Fury leaning on the back of my chair, looking at Cap. He turned to look at Stark. “Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea.” He turned to look at me. “In heroes.”  
I glanced over at Stark and saw him stand and walk out of the room.  
Fury took two steps away from me. “Well, it’s an old fashioned notion.”  
I knew what he was trying to do, it was obvious. But that didn’t it mean it wasn’t working.  
I stood and strode out of the room in the direction that Stark went, and then something occurred to me. I sharply switched direction and walked to my private armory. It was small, since I didn’t typically need armor, but I had it because of the armor I brought from my home planet created specifically for me millennia ago. The walls were dark and there were black cases sitting on the shelves with a glass case containing my floating sword sitting in the middle of the room.  
I pulled the cases down from the shelves and slowly and carefully opened them. Inside were gleaming pieces of armor, though not an entire suit. In one was a silver breast plate that I quickly brought out. It was perfectly sized for me, running from the bottom of my rib cage to right underneath my collar bones. I pulled out the garment of clothing underneath and flipped it out. It was a traditional female warrior’s garb from my home planet; it appeared like a dress, long and black, with thick slits up each side up to the very top of my thighs, but with an almost like a bathing suit bottom underneath, a turtle neck-kinda thing without sleeves, and a diving back for my wings. I quickly changed into the dress and clicked the breast plate into its place.  
The next case held strange layered and bent at one point pieces of armor. I clicked these over each of my wings, covering the support top bones down to where they left the skin to reveal the sharp spines at the turn of my wings and at the tips.  
In the next case was thigh high boots with metal at the top, on the front of my knees, and at the ankle in designs.  
In the final case was a sword sheath with a unique design and strange symbols in no human language, but the language of my people.  
I walked quickly out of the room after placing everything away and putting my sword into the sheath, which was magically strapped to my back. I walked to the room where I knew Clint and Natasha to be, since they captured Clint during the battle.  
I stopped right outside the door to listen and heard Clint panting and groaning and straining, smelled his sweat, and felt the ripples created by his moving head.  
“Clint,” I heard Natasha say softly to her partner and friend. “You’re going to be all right.”  
“You know that?” Clint chuckled. “Is that what you know?” His voice sounded breathy, like he was fighting every urge in his body, which I knew he was. “I’ve got no window. I have to flush him out.”  
“You’ve got to level out. It’s gonna take time.”  
“You don’t understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?”  
“You know that I do.”  
“Why am I back? How’d you get him out?”  
“Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head.”  
I lightly snorted at my friend.  
“Thanks.”  
That almost made me laugh, and I would have if I wasn’t so pissed off.  
I heard the sound of Clint’s binds being taken off and he said softly “Natasha. How many agents did I…”  
“Don’t.” Natasha interrupted. “Don’t do that to yourself Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for.”  
“Loki, did he get away?”  
“Yeah. I don’t suppose you know where.”  
“Didn’t need to know. Didn’t ask.”  
There was shuffling inside the room as they got up. Natasha came to the door and saw me. We nodded to each other and I walked over. The door slid open and I leaned against the wall, not saying anything.  
“He’s gonna make his play soon, though. Today.” Clint continued, not seeming to notice I had come in.  
“We got to stop him.”  
Clint looked up from the water in his hand and jumped slightly when he saw me but kept talking “Yeah? Who’s ‘we’?”  
“I don’t know. Whoever’s left.”  
Clint nodded “Well, if I put an arrow through Loki’s eye socket, I’d sleep better, I suppose.”  
I smiled and finally spoke “That would make me sleep better too.”  
Natasha smiled ever so slightly and went to sit next to Clint “Now you sound like you.”  
“But you don’t,” Clint said, looking from her eyes to his cup. “You’re a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?”  
I rolled my eyes at his cluelessness.  
“He didn’t. I just…” She cut off and looking at her hands.  
“Natasha,” Clint whispered so soft I barely heard him, even with my super hearing.  
“I’ve been compromised. I got red in my ledger. I’d like to wipe it out.” Natasha said, repeating what she said to Loki what felt like ages ago.  
It was tense and I felt it stronger than either of them. So, to relieve it I said “Right now, I really want to give Loki a kick in the nuts.”  
The two spies smiled softly.  
“I really, really want to,” I said tapping my chin.  
“What’s with the clothes?” Clint asked.  
I glanced down at the armor and such then back at him “This is my ‘I’m gonna kick major ass right now so get out my flippen way, stupid’ uniform.” I shook my hips, making the skirt of the dress flow back and forth “Plus, I haven’t worn this thing in centuries, it will be fun using it to kick his ass.”  
They smiled more.  
“Now,” I said loudly, smacking my hands together. “You go get cleaned up.” I grabbed Clint by the arm and shove him into the adjoining bathroom, then sat down on the bed near Natasha, who was now standing.  
A little while later Cap came in the door in full suit, minus the head part “Time to go.”  
“Go where?” Natasha asked.  
“I’ll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?”  
There was a click and Clint came out of the bathroom holding a towel “I can.”  
Cap looked from him to us with an obvious question on his face. We nodded.  
“Got a suit?” Cap nodded to Clint.  
Clint nodded in return “Yeah.”  
“Then suit up.” And then Cap was gone.  
We looked at each other, nodded, and left the room. We walked quickly down the hall in the direction of the armory, meeting up with everyone very quickly. As I glanced around the room I saw Clint sliding on his quiver, Natasha turning on her ‘Widow’s Stings’, Stark working on fixing up his suit a little after it was damaged during the attack on the Helecarrier, and Cap retrieving his shield. I merely shrugged and activated my dark magic, causing black orbs to form around each of my hands.  
After we were all ready, we walked in the direction of the jets, Cap in front and myself in the back.  
‘Are you ready?’ I asked Drake as we walked.  
‘Always.’  
We walked into one of the jets and saw an agent working on it. He stood up and said “Hey, you guys aren’t authorized to be in here.”  
“Son,” Cap said sharply “just don’t.”  
I walked around to the front of the group, knowing that agents were typically afraid of me, and smiled at him, letting Drake to the surface enough so my eyes turned purple and my mouth became pure fangs. “Out,” I said in my sweetest voice, slightly slurred by my teeth.  
The man’s eyes grew huge and he skittered out of the jet. I pressed the button closing the door behind him and Drake receded. Then I burst out laughing.


	10. Start of a New War

Stark flew out in his suit first and jet followed soon after. Once we got to New York I, myself, jumped out of the plane and flew after Stark, keeping pace easily with him, since his suit was malfunctioning the entire time and seemed one step from breaking down. When he got close to Stark towers I veered away to land on a rooftop nearby.  
I watched with eyes stronger than Clint’s as Stark talks to a man on the roof with a big machine containing the Tesseract. I lightly chuckled as he shot the machine and was blasted back by a force field. I glanced down at almost the same time Stark did and saw Loki standing on the balcony of the tower, looking up at Stark, smirking. Tony landed on the Ironman landing pad and started walking to the tower, the landing pad taking off his suit as he went. I noticed that they didn’t take their eyes off each other as they both walked inside.  
I swooped down to the landing pad and sat down on it, crossing my legs and staring at the two men through the window. After a moment I stood again and walked in.  
“The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that.” Loki said, staring out the window and not having noticed me walk in. He turned sharply around to look at Stark “What have I to fear?”  
“The Avengers,” Tony… err… Stark said simply. Loki frowned in confusion and took a couple steps towards Tony… grr… Stark. “That’s what we call ourselves. We’re sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’-type thing.” As he talked Tony… oh forget it... poured himself a drink.  
“Yes, I’ve met them,” Loki said cockily.  
“Yeah,” Tony fake laughed. “It takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that on. But let’s do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod.” Tony started, causing Loki to stiffen and turn away a bit.  
“A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend,” I said, gliding down the stairs giving ample distraction so Tony could put on his suit deploy wristband or whatever.  
“A man with breathtaking anger-management issues,” Tony continued. “A dragon-sorceress,” at this I gasped lightly and mockingly held a hand over my heart, coming to a stop next to Tony, and mouthed ‘I didn’t know you cared.’ “A couple of master assassins and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”  
“That was the plan,” Loki smiled.  
I took the glass out of Tony’s hand, getting a small noise of objection from him, and took a drink out of it before handing it back to him and saying “Not a great plan.”  
“When they come,” Tony glared at me for a quick moment and walked around the bar and me with the drink still in hand “and they will, they’ll come for you.”  
“I have an army.”  
“We have a Hulk,” Tony paused and looked back at me “and a Drake.”  
“I thought the beast had wandered off,” Loki said, pointing his scepter momentarily to the window.  
“You’re missing the point,” Tony continued walking towards Loki. “There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.” With that Tony lifted the glass to his lips and drank from it.  
Loki slowly stalked towards Tony “How will your friends have time for me when they’re so busy fighting you?” His scepter began whirr and he tapped it’s blade against Tony’s chest, getting a clanging noise when it hit the arc reactor in his chest. When it didn’t work Loki frowned and tapped it against his chest again, the same noise sounded. “This usually works.”  
Tony, being ever the smartass, responded “Well, performance issues, it’s not uncommon. One out of five…”  
Loki latched onto Tony’s neck with his hand and threw him at the window. Tony said something but I was too busy pouring myself some of the drink Tony had had before to listen. I just calmly watched as Loki and Tony argued and then Loki threw Tony out the window. A second later a loud noise sounded and a big red shape shot out the window after Tony, knocking Loki on his butt.  
“Interesting,” I mumbled.  
Loki turned to look at me as I took a drink calmly. I shrugged, put the glass down, and ran towards him. Jumping in the air, I kicked him in the face and then leapt out the window after Tony. I saw him a bit below me, already in an Ironman suit.  
He flew up to where I was hovering just outside the broken window and began speaking again “And there’s one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil.”  
Loki started to raise his scepter but Tony shot him with a repulser, sending him sprawling back to the floor.  
Just then a noise like a pew-pew gun but much louder caused me to almost fall out of the sky from my wings locking. I looked up and saw a beam of light shooting into the sky and creating a hole in the sky.  
Strange creatures began pouring out of the portal, quickly starting to attack. Tony jetted off from right next to me and started to attack the Chitauri. I flew up after him, shooting dark magic with one hand and using the other to wield my sword, which easily cut through the metal of their armor and their strange flying things.  
I glanced over at Tony as he shot off rockets from his suit. All at once, I snapped my wings closed and pointed my head to the ground. I fell head first down after the Chitauri that had escaped us and, snapping my wings open, chased after them as best as I could. But all I could do is kill off a few as the rest fired upon the people on the streets.  
“Mommy!”  
I turned sharply and dove into a ring of fire around a child.  
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly as the little boy flinched at the sight of me landing near the fire. “I’ll try to help you find your mommy.” With that, I scooped the child up in my arms and bent my winds around him. I walked through the fire, protecting the child with my wings, and quickly found his panicked mother.  
With a nod to them, I took off back into the air, blasting magic and swinging my sword left and right.  
I saw the Quinn-jet containing those of us who can’t fly appear on the horizon and I heard Stark speaking into his comm, though I only caught the end of it.  
“-I’m gonna lay ‘em out for you.”  
I looked behind me and saw a bunch of Chitauri giving chase. I felt a smirk overtake my face.  
“Natasha?” I spoke, activating my comm. “I have a lot of cyborg naked mole rats chasing me.”  
I switched direction and flew by her range shortly after she took out Tony’s rats. She shot them out of the sky.  
“Is it sick that this is the most fun I’ve had in seventy years?” I asked, my voice cracking, so they knew I was only jesting to keep from sinking into despair.  
“Yes,” the Cap replied over comm.  
“Thanks,” my voice dripped with sarcasm. Then the jet was shot by Loki.


	11. Goodbye, Vivian

I dove after them, latching my grip onto the flaming wing and pulling up, in an effort to slow them down. I paid no mind to the pieces of metal gashing my arms, as well as the rubble when we slammed into the side of a building, and leaving bloody trails. We came to a crashing halt as the jet slid across the ground, that had come up so quickly.  
The jet loading doors came open and all three of the heroes walked out with their respective weapons. I dropped to the ground beside them and looked at the blood dripping off my fingertips.  
“Ow,” I stated blandly before following the three others to run towards the tower.  
“We got to get back up there,” I heard Cap yelling as I focused on my arms at the same time as focusing on the ground I was running on.  
“Really, Sherlock?” I ground out.  
There were many people running but they were running in the opposite direction as us crazy people in weird clothes. They were screaming too.  
We stared at the portal as a giant creature that kind of resembled a trilobite mixed with a dragon the size of a skyscraper burst from the pulsing blue energy. It roared like a dragon as it came through.  
“Shit,” I mumbled.  
The creature flew, surprisingly agile, down uncomfortably close to the ground and overhead. As it flew past us Chitauri soldiers shot out of compartments in its armor and landed on and in the buildings.  
“Stark, you seeing this?” Cap said from next to me.  
I stared down at my sword and smiled softly as it warped and changed into duel daggers, one in each hand.  
“Seeing. Still working on believing.” Tony’s voice rang through the comm, sounding out of breath already. “Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”  
I smiled distractedly at Tony’s genius, not that I’d ever tell him that, no one needs to stroke that ego.  
“Banner?” Steve asked, thoroughly confused.  
“Just keep me posted.”  
I looked up at the sky and saw Tony flying a little distance from the creature-battle ship-thing. I jumped off the ground, twirling and pointing my daggers out so the blades pointed at the Chitauri now flanking me. A bolt of blood red light shot out of the tips of the blades and shot right through their heads. The flying things that they rode on spun and slammed into several others, exploding.  
I leveled off right by a building that seemed to be crawling with both Chitauri and humans. I simply dropped through the skylight and landed behind the Chitauri circling the people.  
“Ello,” I said, catching the soldier’s attention, not to mention the people.  
It growled and raised its weapon to point at my chest.  
“Not very nice,” I growled, my teeth turning to fangs. I raised my daggers from their position at my sides and showed them to him. He grunted, unimpressed. The daggers melted without heat and molded around my hands before coming to the insides of my hands. The black metal twisted until they had become Bagh Naka (Indian tiger claws, look it up) with huge blades that curved five or six inches past my fingertips. With one twist, all the Chitauri’s throats were torn out.  
“Hide in the basement,” I growled at the people. After they nodded I ran out of the building.  
I quickly found the rest of the Avengers, minus Tony and Bruce of course, on a destroyed bridge.  
“What’s the story upstairs?” Cap asked as I landed beside him and Thor.  
“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable,” Thor stated, giving me a quick glance.  
“Thor’s right. We gotta deal with these guys.” Stark stated over comm.  
I shook my hands as the Bagh Naka melted and reestablished itself in the sheath as a sword again. I walked over to stand by Clint.  
“How do we do this?” Natasha asked, her voice sounding nervous to me (and probably Clint) because I knew what her emotions sounded like.  
“As a team,” Cap was ever the soldier.  
“I have unfinished business with Loki,” Great job Thunder brain, haven’t you noticed that most of us do?  
“Yeah? Get in line.” Clint grumbled as he screwed on arrow heads.  
“Aye,” I snarled, my eyes turning Drake purple.  
“Save it,” Soldier boy walked towards us, all sparkles and spangles. “Loki’s going to keep this fight focused on us, and that’s what we need.” Spangles walked past, looking up before turning back to look at all four of us. “Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He’s going to need us to…”  
A low rumbling caused us all to look. Here came Bruce, calmly sitting on an old motorcycle through the rubble and the burning cars. He stopped and propped the old thing against an upside down car and walk towards us as we walked towards him.  
“So,” Banner threw his hands out to gesture around us. “This all seems horrible.”  
“I’ve seen worse,” Natasha spoke up from her stopped position beside me.  
“Sorry,” Banner looked a little constipated as he said that.  
“No, we could use a little worse.”  
I waved my hands around a little “I could break out my Drakey mojo.”  
Natasha glanced at me with a strange expression “Okay then.”  
“Stark, we got him,” Cap spoke into his comm link.  
“Banner?” Tony’s disembodied voice rang out from the comm.  
“Just like you said.”  
“Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”  
“Oh, shit,” I groaned, covering my face.  
Suddenly, Tony rounded the corner of a building quite about a mile away. A second later a trilobite-thing cut right through said building, showering glass and rubble on the street below.  
Everybody got a very aware expression while Thor growled and twisted his hammer.  
“I-I,” Natasha stumbled in her speaking “don’t see how that’s a party.”  
As the creature and Tony approached, I felt Drake pushing her way to the surface but not escaping. The creature scraped its belly against the ground, roaring and gnashing its teeth as it caused cars to be thrown aside and explode in its wake.  
Banner started walking in the direction of the creature but Cap’s voice made him momentarily pause.  
“Doctor Banner, Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”  
Banner kept on walking, slower now, and looked over his shoulder “That’s my secret, Captain.” He glanced back at the creature that couldn’t have been more than a couple blocks from us now. He finally stopped and looked back at us, looking Cap in the eye “I’m always angry.” With that, he twisted away, transforming in size and skin color as he did. His shirt stretched and fell in tatters to the ground.  
As he finished transforming, he swung his fist into the creature’s head, letting out a feral growl. The creature’s head and armor collapsed under the brute strength of the Hulk, merely causing him to slide back. While its head quit moving, its body continued on into an arc stretching high over our heads, popping and grinding and sparking and stretching as it went.  
“Hold on!” I heard Tony yell through the comm, over the metal grinding noises and the creature’s dying roars.  
Small missiles shot from Tony’s outstretched arm, into the exposed flesh of the beast. The others took shelter as the creature exploded; Clint behind an overturned car, Thor just crouching and raising his hammer over his head, and Cap shielding himself and Natasha with his circular weapon of hope and such. I merely stood there, allowing the fire, flesh, and armor to rain around me, but never touching me thanks to the black and purple dome I created above myself and Cap and Natasha, making Cap’s shield obsolete.  
The Chitauri around halted their assault to turn to us, screeching and screaming in their strange language. They all tore off their masks, revealing deformed faces unlike any human or animal I had seen on Earth or my own planet.  
Hulk gave his own roar in return and I let out one of my own, nearly matching Hulk’s in volume. Around me, everyone was readying, so I twirled my sword in hand with an odd smile.  
More of the trilobite creatures came from the portal with more soldiers around them.  
“Guys,” I said, as Natasha and I were the only ones facing the portal.  
Everyone turned to look and I could feel their auras quake with fear.  
“Call it, Captain,” Tony said, his voice strangely steady.  
“Alright, listen up,” Cap began. “Until we can close that portal, out priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof.” He pointed towards a roof. “Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark and Vivian, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out,” he was talking with his fingers now as well “you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”  
“Can you give me a lift?” Clint asked Tony.  
Tony’s metal head bobbed and he started moving towards Clint “Right. Better clench up, Legolas.” The two shot up into the sky just as Tony got a grip of Clint.  
I nodded and jumped into Hulk’s outstretched hand. He shoved his hand up, vaulting me high into the sky. As I flew through the air, still keeping my wings closed, I let out a roar. I snapped my wings open and flew off into battle, not catching the rest of what Cap said.  
In the distance behind me, I could see Hulk smashing every Chitauri in sight. Above, Thor was already lighting up the sky and the empire state building with his lightning before shooting it straight at the portal, causing many Chitauri to explode and several trilobite creatures to be pushed back through the portal before exploding themselves.  
Below I saw a group of civilians surrounded by Chitauri soldiers. I snapped my wings closed and dived, head first, straight at them. I snapped my wings open just above and landed facing the civilians and having my back to the Chitauri. I slowly turned around, allowing my sword to change shape until it was two steel blade fighting fans. I twisted the fans and swiped them across the Chitauri’s arms, cutting them open and forcing them to drop their weapons. I side kicked one in the head and threw a fan at another, cutting off his head but imbedding the fan into a nearby wall. I threw the other fan, which imbedded itself into a Chitauri’s stomach, and raised my hands in the directions of the two weapons. The two fans seemed to melt and jumped onto my arms, wrapping into my hands and solidifying into hand guns. I fired off a couple quick shots and the rest of the Chitauri surrounding were down for the count.  
I turned around to look at the people behind me, turning my guns back into a sword and sheathing it.  
“Get inside a building, get off the streets and stay below eyesight,” I instructed before taking off again and circling overhead until I saw them go into a building.  
“Stark, you’ve got a lot of strays sniffing your tail,” I heard Clint’s voice over the comm.  
“I’m just trying to keep them off the streets,” Tony responded, his voice strained.  
“Well, they can’t bank worth a damn. So find a tight corner.”  
“I’m on my way to help, Stark.” I said, turning to shoot off in his direction.  
“I will roger that. And hurry up Vivian.” Tony said.  
I saw Clint out of the corner of my eye as I gained on Tony. I noted his severely depleted quiver.  
Tony stalled on a corner and shot a Chitauri as it passed him and took off again when the others caught up. But that gave me enough time to catch up and I landed on a Chitauri’s back, digging my claws into its spine and breathing fire across the machine they were riding on. It overheated and I jumped off and started to fly away just as it exploded. I did this several times while the Chitauri were chasing Tony but flew away as he only had a few left.  
When he was finished I heard him talking to Clint but tuned them out, chasing and killing Chitauri everywhere, rescuing some civilians as I went. As I flew, I saw Natasha on a Chitauri’s back as it shot through the air. She seemed to be guiding it with blades in her hands. I chuckled and kept fighting.  
All of a sudden, as I flew behind Hulk and Thor on a trilobite, a searing pain hit my back and I was sent falling to the ground. I looked over my shoulder to see one of my wings was split between two groups of the support bones all the way up to the bones across the top of my wings and my sheath was gone. Above, Loki flew by on one of the Chitauri flying machines. One of the blade-like things on the bottom of the flying thing was stained with blood, my blood.  
I tried to stand but fell back to my knees, blood pouring from the wound.  
“I’m down, guys,” I said over the comm, looking up at Clint, who was on a building nearby.  
“Get up and keep going, that’s what you taught us, remember.” Clint responded, his voice hard and commanding.  
I gritted my teeth but smiled and forced myself to my feet “Don’t know how well I’ll fly, though.” I paused and looked at my wing for a second before waving a hand over it and allowing my magic to collect over the split so that it held my wing together. It was crude and I was still bleeding through it but it would have to do.  
I took off back into the sky and resumed beating up Chitauri. But things began to seem hopeless as I saw the others in various states of almost defeat, other than Natasha. I was bleeding out as I went and was beginning to lose altitude. My magic, holding my wing together, was failing due to the blood loss and fatigue that came with it.  
I heard Tony and Fury talking over the comm about a missile coming in. I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I hit the ground again. I rolled over onto my back and watched Tony fly by above. I stood again and kicked an approaching Chitauri in the head and took off again. I shot my magic left and right, despite its weakness, as I flew up as far as I could go. When I reached that altitude I glided, still shooting magic at any Chitauri within range.  
“I can do it, I can shut the portal down.” I heard Natasha say over the comm.  
“Do it!” Cap yelled.  
“No, wait,” Tony’s voice interrupted.  
“Stark, these things are still coming,” Cap half pleaded.  
“I got a nuke coming in. It’s gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it.”  
Far away, I saw Tony latched onto the bottom of the nuke as it flew towards the city. I looked from the sword in my hand to Tony and the nuke, and then threw my sword, letting it fly and fall into Central Park. I flew at Tony, far out above the water until he got close. As Tony passed by me, pushing the nuke up towards the portal, I flew after. I settled above the nuke, digging my claws into the metal to find a hand hold and helping Tony push.  
“Stark, Vivian, you know that’s a one way trip,” I heard Cap say.  
There was a click as Tony shut off his comm and I heard him talking faintly but couldn’t make out what he was saying through the helmet.  
“Only for me, Steve,” I responded before taking out my own comm and throwing it into the water below.  
We approached the tower and began our assent towards the portal. We shot up like a giant bullet towards the blue light and passed through it into darkness. The only light around us came from the portal behind, the stars light years away, and the mass of moving metal, like a ship, in front of us.  
I heard Tony’s suit sputter out of life and twisted myself so was underneath the missile as well. I released one hand to give Tony a sharp push towards the portal and watched him fall towards it. Then I turned away to keep the missile on its track towards the ship. I finally released it when I was only a hundred meters from the ship and turned to watch the portal, fully knowing I wouldn’t make it there in time to get through.  
I felt the explosion at my back and the last thing I saw before vanishing into the wall of fire, was Tony falling back through the portal and it closing behind him.  
For the first time since my home world died, I felt at peace.


	12. Soon

Mourning followed the death of their own. Mourning for Coulson, for Vivian, for all the people who died during the battle. Even Loki seemed to be upset over her death. The days they kept him in a prison he did nothing but sit in the corner of his cell and stare into space, not saying a word when even Thor came to see him.  
The world was shocked, seeing such horror happen in their midst. Even the terrorist attacks stopped in all countries for weeks.  
Vivian’s sword still floated in Central Park, a few feet in the air, as no one could move it, being as there was a spell on it similar to Thor’s hammer, not even the thunder god himself could move it. So Tony Stark had it incased in a pedestal, protecting it from the elements. The glass was bulletproof and reinforced to prevent anyone from breaking the pedestal open.  
To the world, Vivian Blackthorn was dead, a savior of the people at the expense of her own life. To the Avengers, Vivian was survived by her actions. And yet, some held out hope. They did not know for sure that Vivian had died. But, as time passed, that hope faded and melted away until all that was left was a sadness and a chasm in the foundation of the Avengers dynamic. Soon, however, that chasm would be filled and the sadness burned away by the joy of finding the completeness brought to the team by their lost member.  
Soon, Vivian Blackthorn would return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though much of the next portions are already up on Fanfiction.net, they may not be completely caught up here for a while. Apologies.


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